Spreken is Goud?

This paper aims to examine the existence of silence in language acquisition for learners in a multilingual environment using a survey conducted among the Dutch population in Sweden. The objective of the study was to investigate the extent to which children learning Dutch from their parents in a predominantly Swedish environment experience a silent period. The results show that a large proportion of the participants exhibit a silent period before the age of six. Furthermore, the most important influence on the children's acquisition of the minority language, Dutch, is the choice parents make with regard to the languages they use within the family, rather than any outside influences.